History, Philosophy & World Perspectives : History Department Faculty

Joshua M. Rosenthal

Warner Hall 216
Office Phone: 203 837 8449
Email: RosenthalJ@wcsu.edu

Education:

Ph.D. in History, Columbia University, 2001
M.A. in History, Columbia University, 1992
B.A. in History, Wesleyan University, 1988

Teaching Interests:

I teach courses on Latin American History. In addition to introductory surveys on the 100 and 200 level I teach a course on commodity history and one on conflict and memory. I also teach courses on Atlantic Slavery.

 

Research Interests and Publications:

My primary area of research is nineteenth century Colombia. My book, Salt and the Colombian State. Local Society and Regional Monopoly in Boyacá, 1821-1900 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021) was translated and published as La sal y el Estado colombiano. Sociedad local y monopolio regional en Boyacá, 1821-1900 (Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2020), which was pretty much a bucket list moment for me. In my current work I focus on petitions for clemency submitted by people during and after the civil wars of the mid-nineteenth century. I have published a couple of articles in Colombian history journals and, ever so slowly, turning this into a book. I love these documents as they allow a glimpse into how people dealt with the reality of a political conflict that was beyond their control, how they justified their actions to an unsympathetic government. I see this history as anticipating the struggles of Colombians in the present, navigating a society that is theoretically in a post-conflict era, but still haunted by questions of responsibility and culpability. In the past I published critical essays on Capoeira, the African Brazilian cultural form.